Amanda Tan

Name: Tan Yan Ting, Amanda

Gender: Female

Age: 18

Grade: 12

School: Cochise High School

Hobbies and Interests: Pop music, writing, soccer, video games, cooking

Appearance: Amanda stands at 5'4" and weighs in at just over 120 pounds. Her build is slender but athletic, more suited for the endurance and quick sprints that her sport required rather than outright strength.

Her skin colour is rather tan, as might be expected from someone who spends so much time outdoors and her facial features make her Asian heritage clear. She has a heart shaped face, with high cheekbones that are quite prominent, a long nose with a pronounced bridge and small dark brown eyes with a sharp gaze.

Her black hair is naturally straight, resistant to most of her attempts to give it any volume. Amanda has left it short, keeping it at a little above neck level at the back. Her bangs are about the same length, parted asymmetrically and she usually pins back one side carefully with a pair of bobby pins.

Amanda has a simple style to her clothing, her wardrobe largely consisting of a large number of pastel tees and blouses as well as a small variety of skirts and leggings. While Amanda prefers comfort in her clothes, she does try to keep a semblance of style to her wardrobe choices, often picking a cute look for herself. Her ears are pierced, but she rarely chooses to put on earrings.

On the day of the abduction, Amanda was wearing a long-sleeved pink and white windbreaker over a plain white T-shirt, a short denim skirt over bike shorts and a pair of black Chelsea boots.

Biography: Amanda was born in Singapore in late January 1998 the only child in a relatively well-to-do family. Her father Tan Zhi Wen had a stable job as a consultant at Grant Thornton while her mother, Celine Wong Xue En, a nurse at the National University Hospital.

Amanda's parents often doted on Amanda, perhaps trying to make up for the fact that both of them were often at work, leaving her grandmother to look after her for most of her childhood. While they desired for her to get good grades, so long as she achieved that she was allowed focus on her own interests. Amanda took this well, putting in her utmost effort into her studies to ensure that she could focus on whatever hobbies were capturing her interest at the time.

Amanda was a naturally curious child, who always wanted to be involved in what others were doing. She tended to be passionate about her hobbies, but she never had the patience to keep at one thing for too long. She would often find a place where she would get stuck in her current endeavour, before getting distracted by something else interesting, often failing to pick up any real skills along the way. She would be trying to pick up an instrument one day, before dropping that to learn how to draw, only to switch to trying to write a novel not long after, leaving a trail of half completed projects and ideas in her wake.

One of the few hobbies that Amanda found that she really enjoyed was sports, and the one that captured her interest the most was soccer. While part of it was in part of her father's own passion for watching the English Premier League, she enjoyed the fact that it wasn't just a fun and fluid game; it was a sport that you could play anyplace, anytime, with as many or little people as you liked. She played the game often as a child during recess, more often than not returning home with small scrapes that gave her parents pause.

Her parents worried about her for a while at the beginning, wondering if it was alright to let a girl get hurt so often, but they eventually decided that it might simply be better to let their child do as she enjoyed. Amanda decided to join her school's soccer team in her fourth year there. She had an aptitude for the game; her natural athleticism combined with enthusiasm got her a place on the main team as their right winger. Her show-offish style made her a great player to watch, and her aggressive and confident plays combined with her creativity on the pitch made her one of the school's star players.

Most of her closest friends were her teammates and she and the team would often spend time together during recess and after school. Her closest friend on the team was Michelle, the playmaker. The two had hit it off well from the beginning, at first simply united by their support for Liverpool, but later on by their similar tastes in books, games and boys. It was through Michelle that Amanda picked up a love for video games, often going over to her house to play FIFA or Halo on her X-Box.

It was late in 2011, after her second year of secondary school, when her father received a job transfer, an opportunity to work in Las Vegas. Her parents debated over the merits of the job transfer for a very long time, before deciding that a shift to the US might be the better choice after all.

The Tans weren't too keen on moving to the strip itself, believing that it would be better for Amanda to choose someplace more amenable to rearing a family. It was fortunate for them to find Kingman, a place relatively close by, a place that they deemed quieter and safer to settle down in.

Amanda's parents had little problems settling in, Zhi Wen finding that the company wasn't all that different in the States and Celine quickly getting a job at the regional medical centre. While her parents had been very open about it and had done their best to involve her opinion in the move, Amanda was never keen on leaving Singapore, uncertain about how much she was leaving behind. Suburbia was far quieter than Amanda had expected, a far cry from the hustle and bustle of the cosmopolitan city-state that she had left behind.

To her, the new environment was frustratingly different in too many minor ways that she couldn't pin down. The accents were different, but she adapted to that soon enough. Amanda had grown up in an extremely multi-cultural environment, having received instruction in two languages from a young age with school placing a strong focus on learning her mother toungue, Mandarin. It was also important for her to learn to code-switch between Standard English for more formal use and Singlish, a local and far more colloquial variety of English that was heavily influenced by the other major ethnic groups in Singapore, especially Malay and Chinese dialects. This, combined with the fact that American media was ubiquitous in her home country, meant that adapting to a American culture was not too difficult for her.

It was the subtler things that tripped her up, like the fact that her new classmates often spoke slower and much more clearly, her almost bullet train style of speech at times unintelligible to them. The attitudes were different too, people far more willing to put themselves out there and get themselves heard. It required more effort for her to do well in Cochise High as compared to in Singapore, while the coursework was less rigorous than what she had been studying before, the discussion based learning was something that she had to adapt to, more used to a didactic teaching style that was more focused on solving problems than on long discussions of the phenomena involved. Nonetheless, she grew to enjoy the opportunities that she had to express her opinions in class and the opportunities of choice that she had over her classes, something that she never had in Singapore.

Amanda stayed in contact often with her old friends, sometimes gaming together on X-Box live, at other times just chatting with each other through Skype. Amanda enjoyed the sense of continuity that this allowed and the weekly conversations would become one of her greatest comforts. Her family would also return back to Singapore yearly, during her summer holidays and while most of that time was spent visiting relatives, she made sure to make some time to meet her friends as well.

One thing that Amanda honestly missed about Singapore was the food. It was nearly impossible to find what had been ubiquitous dishes, and even when she did, the taste and style were different enough to not warrant a repeat visit. Amanda picked up an interest in cooking, wanting to recreate the tastes from her childhood. Every time she returned to Singapore, she would help out in the kitchen with her grandmother, learning new recipes she could take back to the States.

Another thing that stuck Amanda about the States was the relative lack of popularity that soccer had. It certainly wasn't as big as it was back in Singapore, where watching soccer might as well have been the national sport. It wasn't too hard to find people that did play, but Amanda found it was much harder to actually watch the EPL at all, let alone live. While the internet and constant chats with Michelle kept her aware of what was going on, it was still difficult to keep up with the game. Nonetheless, she still joined the soccer club, hoping that her constant participation in the sport would keep her interest from flagging.

Amanda has been largely sociable in high school, her natural extroversion combined with her cheerful demeanour has helped her to make friends easily, choosing largely to stick to the other sportsmen by virtue of having similar class schedules and practice hours. While she has managed to get along well with them, still feels a little bit of a cultural gap between them and she feels nowhere as close to any of her schoolmates as she does with her friends back in Singapore. Amanda isn't too active romantically or otherwise, personally being far more conservative about most of her friends. She cares about how she looks to the other sex and while she does go on dates occasionally, she hasn't found anyone she's very fond of in a romantic light.

Amanda often tries to get involved in too many things at once, over committing herself with too many events. While she understands that she can't do everything, she still can't help but get involved in events that she does find interesting. She tries to do her best to not let this effect her studies though, often times dropping many commitments at once near exam periods to get study time in. This has led to some mild resentment towards her by other members of the projects that she is working on.

Her grades are a set of mixed As and Bs, good enough to avoid questioning from her parents about her grades. She has already applied to several colleges, her parents insistent that getting a degree would be a sure ticket to success. While she doesn't agree with that assessment, she had few plans for what she wants to do after graduation and feels that college might be a good enough experience for her to outweigh the costs.

Amanda tends to be a little over confident about what she does, often assuming that the little dabbling that she's done on a topic is enough to translate into something concrete. Amanda tends too much to focus on the here and now and likes to finish things before she forgets about them. As such she is easily frustrated when things actively impede her or prevent her from doing things in the present. She also tends to be a little impatient about people who are lazy, expecting that people should get things done promptly the ways she does. She doesn't like to think very hard about her options when confronted with difficult decisions, and this often leads to her either making snap decisions, or simply leaving them be and hoping that the problem would eventually go away.

Advantages: She's athletic, capable of both endurance and less likely to be exhausted from physical exertion. She's passionate about things once she is interested and tends to get things done promptly.

Disadvantages: She tends to be easily sidetracked by whatever has captured her interest and loses her focus easily. She tends to be overconfident in her own abilities, and is easily frustrated when things aren't as easy as she expects. This can lead to her making rash decisions especially in stressful situations.

Designated Number: Female student No. 040

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Designated Weapon: FN Model 1949

Conclusion: I'm feeling pretty good about G040. Only concern I've got here is that she's practically her own worst enemy. I can already hear Josie's shrieks of laughter when G040 gets lost in a daydream and walks right into a face-stabbing. Not getting much sleep tonight... - Dennis Lourvey

'The above biography is as written by Randomness. No edits or alterations to the author's original work have been made.'

Evaluations
Handled by: Randomness

Kills: William McKinley (with Alex Tarquin)

Killed By: 

Collected Weapons:  FN Model 1949 (assigned weapon)

Allies: Lucilly Peterson, Jaime Schanbacher, Emma Luz

Enemies: Alex Tarquin

Mid-game Evaluation: Amanda awoke lying in a puddle in the lobotomy labs. She tried to collect her things and leave, but noises made by Lucilly Peterson and Emma Luz upon awakening led her back into the room. The three were then joined by Jaime Schanbacher, who had a startling outburst. Amanda nearly shot Jamie when she entered, only barely stopped by the engaged safety. She stood down, and Jamie in turn calmed down. They talked weapons and plans, Amanda was the only one armed with a gun and she took the lead in calling for them to find shelter elsewhere. She allowed Emma, struggling due to her health, to lean on her while they moved on.

When they ascended through the asylum to the intensive care wards Amanda made the call for the group to check the rooms for beds. While investigating the rooms Lucilly found blood and panicked, Amanda was the one who pursued her and got her to calm down with a bit of gentle reassurance.

The next two days, up past Day 3 announcements, passed in a blur. Amanda grew restless, and was the first to propose that they needed another plan of action than just waiting around in a room. She was nervous to have done so, but everyone else supported her. That left Amanda with the burden of leadership, and her first call was to lead the group in search of expanding their water supplies. This led them all over the island, until they found the pub, where Amanda hoped the group could scavenge. They were shocked by the gruesome discovery of Tessa Mabel Cole's corpse. They were also presented with Kaitlyn Greene, who had been robbing Tessa's corpse and had a gun. Amanda stayed weary while Jamie and Kaitlyn negotiated over sharing Tessa's supplies, until Kaitlyn found a bomb and she and Amanda leveled their guns at each other. They kept the peace barely, and agreed to share supplies and a room for the night, moving Tessa's corpse out.

Next day Amanda woke to find both Lucilly and Kaitlyn had vanished, furthermore, Kaitlyn was now a known killer and Amanda belatedly realized they'd let a killer go free with a powerful explosive. She tried to rally what was left of the group, and as they talked the discussion turned to Kaitlyn and Amanda mused on her guilt for having let the killer walk free aloud. Emma tried to comfort her and keep the conversation constructive, but as Amanda finally belatedly realized Lucilly had abandoned them the pressure suddenly broke through. Amanda believed her leadership had been a disaster, and was furious with herself for trying and everyone else for allowing her to do it. She stormed off on that note, breaking into a run when Emma tried to pursue.

Amanda returned to the asylum and holed herself up in the staff area's storage closet, breaking down into tears and throwing her gun away as the situation finally overwhelmed her. She was discovered after awhile by William McKinley, who was unexpectedly friendly, though Amanda broke down into tears again due to confusion and fear when he spoke to her. Will gently walked them through a conversation, after introductions Amanda was surprised as Will started maturely admitting his mistakes, prompting her to relay her own in kind. He was sympathetic, and offered an opportunity to team up and find the people she'd left behind, but before she could contemplate the possibility the peace was broken when Alex Tarquin arrived and the two men were suddenly holding their weapons at each other. Amanda tried to beg Alex to stop but both men were too stubborn, Will shouted for Amanda to run even as he took a severe wound defending himself, Amanda ran for her gun instead and tried to save Will despite her own misgivings. She instead struck Will in the chest. Guilt and impotent fury at herself paralyzed Amanda, she merely watched the fight unfold, as Alex was defeated by Will and an interceding Jonathan Gulley. She begged Will for forgiveness and he offered it just before he died.

Post-Game Evaluation: 

Memorable Quotes: "I mean our goal is to live. And if we just sit here, we're not going to get rescued right? We actually need to do something. If we want to live, we need to go and make something happen." -- To Emma, Jaime, and Lucilly

"Sorry. I really can't- No, I can’t do this anymore." -- As she abandons her group.

"Sorry. Look, if you don't need help, I'll just leave, and then you can just get right back to dying." -- After Jonathan tells her off for trying to help him.

Threads
Below is a list of threads that contain Amanda, in chronological order.

V6 Pregame:
 * Morning Dew
 * In C.

Sadie Hawkins Dance:
 * Driving down the road alone

V6:
 * Guns, Germs, and Rust
 * You Could Have A Dream About Losing Your Friends
 * Notes from an Even Smaller Island
 * The Greatest Sideshow on Earth
 * Say You're One of Them

Your Thoughts
''Whether you were a fellow handler in SOTF or just an avid reader of the site, we'd like to know what you thought about Amanda Tan. What did you like, or dislike, about the character? Let us know here!''